As the Barrow County Board of Commissioners gets ready to vote next week on plans to privatize major parts of county government, several issues need to be discussed.

First, whether or not this move is good for the county, it’s the result of years of frustration about poor county management. The county government hasn’t historically been a bastion of efficiency and to a large extent, that history opened the door for this move toward privatization.

Second, for supporters of this move to suggest that it will save the county money is wrong. Although the word “privatize” has become something of a buzzword in conservative circles, there’s little to suggest that this move will, over time, save the Barrow County government or citizens any money.
The reason for that is that a large part of the county government won’t be affected by this move. For example, none of the five constitutional officers mandated by the state constitution will be affected. In addition, the county’s debt payments and capital outlay purchases won’t be affected.
Out of a $50 million budget, only a small number of county government departments will be affected by this move, should the BOC approve it. So the idea that the county will suddenly be saving a lot of money is wrong.

Third, for the firm looking to be selected to run a privatized government to hint that no current county employees will be affected is disingenuous. If no current employees will be affected — including removing the bad ones — then why privatize the departments? Isn’t the idea to save money through having better employees who are more efficient?
One of the criticisms of Barrow County has long been that government employees are hired based on family and friends, not skills. If that’s the case, then privatizing, but keeping all of the current staff will solve nothing.

Fourth, the real reason for this effort probably isn’t the money anyway. It’s mostly about control. By pushing some day-to-day operation behind the veil of a private firm, a few key people can control those departments behind the scenes without much public oversight. As a board, the BOC will be indirectly weakening its control over the operations put under privatization. Maybe that’s a good thing, if you think the BOC meddles too much anyway. But there’s no guarantee that those hired by the private company will be any better in decision-making than the BOC members are.

At the end of the day, the question here is what will be accomplished by privatization? Is it to save money? Is it to make government more efficient? Is it to get rid of all the deadwood jobs created by nepotism over the years? Or is it to indirectly change the dynamics of control over the core of county administration?
Maybe privatizing these few county departments is the best thing to do in Barrow even if it won’t save money.
But based on over 30 years of covering local government, I suspect that if the BOC approves this privatization move, it will be just trading one set of problems for another.
***
I love the Gruber controversy. As one of those involved in drafting ObamaCare, economist Jon Gruber has been recorded saying the law played on voter “stupidity” and was sold without being fully transparent about its impact.
Gruber is just confirming what critics of the law said all along; that the law would not do what its supporters said and that it would not lower either insurance rates or health care costs.
Gruber is probably right when he says the American public is “stupid.” We have a large number of uninformed people who don’t follow current events and who have little background in critical thinking. Many people would rather be told what the think than to actually think for themselves.
President Obama and his technocrats exploited that to sell the American public on a plan that they knew wouldn’t “let you keep your current doctor” or lower costs.
Obama was part of the lie.

Mike Buffington is co-publisher of Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” Benjamin Franklin

Funny, Make the employed Kin, Kind and Caste Work rather then Vote for a living and all the Democrats cry about how much better big government is then the private sector...

How the government is responsible... NOT
How the government is accountable... NOT
How the cronies are better at running the county... Really?

While they hire their kin to pad their pockets (Tax assessor's husband...)

While they spend your money over and over on the same issue (County EMS system...)

The market will punish the private sector entity that waste their time and money on foolishness ...

Really, outside of dragging them out into the light of the market sector...

How will the employed Kin, Kind and Caste be kept from VOTING for their OWN at the expense of those that WORK for their OWN...

AS far as I've seen, as long as the elected arrogance and their employed constituents are allowed to vote in their OWN interest nothing will change...

It has been shown...

That, when given a chance the County has voted in the "County's" interest...

As I remember, the same elected arrogance, all knowing old timers and employed cronies were against the change in the government form, from
strong arm chairman to managed operations...

But, when give the chance, the "County" voted in ITS' own interest and dumped the strong arm elected arrogance that made any progress impossible.

Now, given the same chance, I bet the "County" would vote for the change how the county staffs its operations. Really, all that is happening is making the employed live under the same reality that performance not
relation will be used keep or lose your position

So, YES, the "County" is watching the elected arrogance, because this time we have not been given the opportunity to vote in the "County's"
interest...

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